For starters, this book needs to have at least 400 of the 700 pages edited from it.

The book is clever, sometimes funny, and even at times delightful. It also is long, stilted and rambling.

There are only a few women in the story and they all seem to be there to either fret/be to be unable to think, have sex/ be raped, or be hit/punched. Black and gay people are also horribly portrayed. I tried to bear in mind how this was not out of character for the time the book was written, but knowing that did not make it easier to read.

The front cover of my copy has the quote “Funny, bawdy, exciting....full of riches....there is greatness in it” - Saturday Review
on the front cover. I would agree this book does have riches in it. Unfortunately I had to slog through 400 pages of absolutely garbage to get to them. ( )

Barth is tedious but hilarious, erudite and maddening. This one is brilliant and gallops right along, but as I think often happens in Bart, at some point I want to just throw up my hands and say "I get it." Giles is a good book but probably not one I'd recommend generally unless you're already a known fan of lengthy postmodern things. ( )

This is the most entertaining novel I've ever read. ( )

What can one possible say of this novel? It is by far one of the most interesting pieces of American Literature of its time. One would want to consider it as science fiction or fantasy, all the while never feeling quite satisfied with either distinction (distinctions which are in themselves scrutinized in the story and possibly its most earnest (though disinterested) message). One thing for sure though is that with this novel Barth breaches that point of no return in meta-fictional irony that in my opinion has only ever been matched by David Foster Wallace (may he find peace at last).

The plot of this novel is not far from his “Sot-Weed Factor,” the difference being that instead of creating a diaspora of interpretation, he uses cliché structures that fall in upon themselves, referencing each phase with the utmost conspicuous acknowledgement to its prior conventional use. To further his attack against distinction (aside from the obvious “pass all fail all) is his use of externalizing the book, making it something other than his own, and thus making the entire story itself irrelevant.

As one would expect, you get all the snarky dank humor throughout the entirety of this novel. But much more is its significance in American Literature. It truly is a vision – one where the end both affirms and denies itself, highlighting the outrageousness of trying to find completion in our own lives through distinctions that never come but stifle, and ultimately making the always sought after Frankenstein of a book in which it takes on a life entirely its own: independent of author, editor, reader, and world.
( )

Not an easy read and I would hesitate to recommend. A bit too zany/farcical for me. Despite the fact that I felt lost (perhaps this is a testament to Barth...) much of the time, I still appreciated the tension between the libidinous and the ivory tower aspects of life. ( )